page_title: William Notman
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: William Notman / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Composite Photograph of Carnival, South End Exhibition Rink, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, February 1899. About 200 skaters and 1000 spectators attended the Carnival held in the South End Exhibition Rink (corner of Tower Road and Morris Street, near the present-day Cathedral Church of All Saints) in February 1899. The Halifax Daily Echo for 7 February described the participants: "The Royal Canadian regiment and St. Patrick's bands rendered a splendid programme, including many waltzes, which the skaters and spectators enjoyed. The ice was never in better condition, and one well known skater said he had never seen a better sheet in his life. There was nothing very strikingly new in the costumes, though nearly all were very neat and some very pretty. There was only one group noticeable – the Geisha girls (Frank Stephen, D'Arcy Weatherbe and C. Grant) who were made up to represent three very presentable maidens. A lampshade costume, worn by Mrs. Green, was of crimpled paper arranged with pretty effect. Among the ladies who wore particularly nice costumes were Misses Burns and Seeton, as Black and White supplement; Miss Cameron, Yuletide; Miss Dimock, as Phyllis; Miss Darville, as an olden time lady, and Miss Farrell as Folly. Another costume that attracted notice was that of the Daisy, worn by a lady whose name was not among those registered. On a dark green dress were worked daisies, and she wore a little cape with a yellow centre near the neck and the petals falling over the shoulders. On her head was a hat which was a perfect representation of a large daisy, with a yellow centre and the rim of white petals. Among the gentlemen's costumes was the Pink Un', by Mr. Jones, R[oyal] A[rtillery]. It consisted of white satin knickerbockers, with pink satin cutaway coat and vest. A tall pink silk hat, with a miniature horse race on the crown, completed the costume, over which were scattered cards and sporting papers, the whole representing a well known English sporting paper. During the evening a couple of sets of lancers were danced, and these, with the waltzing, would give visitors an idea of how well Halifax people skate."
context_page_description: William Notman was a Scottish-Canadian photographer and businessman. The Notman House in Montreal was his home from 1876 until his death in 1891 and has since been named after him.
context_section_description: Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1826, and moved to Montreal in the summer of 1856. An amateur photographer, he quickly established a flourishing professional photography studio on Bleury Street, a location close to Montreal's central commercial district.
  His first important commission was the documentation of the construction of the Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence River. The Bridge opened with great fanfare in 1860, attended by the Prince of Wales and Notman's camera. The gift to the Prince of a Maple Box containing Notman's photographs of the construction of the bridge and scenes of Canada East and Canada West so pleased Queen Victoria that, according to family tradition, she named him "Photographer to the Queen."
  The first Canadian photographer with an international reputation, Notman's status and business grew over the next three decades. He established branches throughout Canada and the United States, including seasonal branches at Yale and Harvard universities to cater to the student trade. Notman was also an active member of the Montreal artistic community, opening his studio for exhibitions by local painters; the studio also provided training for aspiring photographers and painters. Notman was highly regarded by his colleagues for his innovative photography, and held patents for some of the techniques he developed to recreate winter within the studio walls. He won medals at exhibitions in Montreal, London, Paris, and Australia.
  Photography during the mid-19th century was not the simple process it later became. The typical tourist generally did not carry a camera and much of the Notman studio's images were taken with the tourist's needs in mind. Visitors would look through Notman's picture books and chose views, to buy individually mounted or perhaps made up into an album, and have a portrait taken as well. Street scenes in the burgeoning cities of Canada, the magnificence of modern transportation by rail and steam, expansive landscapes and the natural wonders, were all in demand either as 8" x 10" print, or in the popular stereographic form, and were duly recorded by the many staff photographers working for the Notman studio.
  He was a regular contributor to the photographic journal Philadelphia Photographer and in partnership with its editor, Edward Wilson, formed the Centennial Photographic Company for the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, held in honour of the 100th anniversary of the United States in 1876. He won the only gold medal to be awarded by the British judges and the portrait identification card required for entrance to the grounds was the ancestor of today's various photo-ID cards.
  
  When William Notman died suddenly in November 1891 after a short bout of pneumonia, management of the studio Wm Notman & Son was left to his son William McFarlane Notman, an experienced photographer in his own right, who with his brothers, had accompanied the itinerant settlement known as "End of Track" for the Canadian Pacific Railway and documented the completion of the railway in Western Canada.
caption: Composite Photograph of Carnival, South End Exhibition Rink, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, February 1899. The carefully prepared composite photograph was a Notman specialty
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